"What then is the philosophic meaning of New Year's resolutions? Every resolution you make on this day implies that you are in control of your self, that you are not a victim fated by circumstance, controlled by stars, owned by luck, but that you are an individual who can make choices to change your life."

"The earthquake also focuses attention on the nuclear power plant that Iran is building on the Bushehr Peninsula. The plant is on the same geological fault line that destroyed Bam. Each year, thousands of tremors of various degrees of intensity are recorded on that fault line.

Bushehr itself has thrice been destroyed by earthquake in recent times (1877, 1911 and 1962). It is not hard to imagine what an earthquake that destroys a nuclear power plant could do to the entire Persian Gulf area." [Via ActivistChat.com.]

"The Iranian National Seismological Center had provided the regime with report after report and data upon data stating that the repopulation of the area could prove to be disastrous. But the mullahs had responded by saying that the 12th Imam, who is "invisible," would shield the residents of the city from harm!"

Friday, December 26, 2003

I wonder if Howard Dean's campaign leaders are watching Jon Stewart's "Spider Hole 101" video at this moment... Mr. Dean has to be prepared before he is crawling into his "spider hole of denial." The word "spider-hole" is ranked #7 on the list of "Top Phrases of 2003" by yourDictionary.com. By the way: the word "blog" is #2 on the list of top 10 words.

Thursday, December 25, 2003

It will be interesting to follow the media coverage of the forthcoming Democratic caucuses in Iowa and the primary in New Hamshire. I will focus on the European newspapers and their coverage in future posts on my other blog, Lukeion.

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

My post, X-MA$, is included in this week's edition of Carnival of the Vanities. This time it is hosted by Winds of Change.NET. Joe Katzman has done a great job, putting together a compilation of more than 50 different posts.

"Despite all the commercialism, childish greediness, spiked eggnog, and endless gift-wrapped mountains of materialistic extravagance, there's a lot not to like about Christmas." [SaveTheHumans.com, 12/25/02]

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

"Martin Lindeskog manages to score - big time! - with an interview with John Cox & Allen Forkum (of Cox & Forkum fame - whose book can be found in major bookstores across the country and on-line). They are a daily 'Must-Read'..."

"The symbol of flight in America today is no longer the Wright brothers, but Icarus. Where once we venerated the bold exploration of new frontiers, we now condone bureaucrats putting shackles on anyone who seeks to test the untried � to soar too high or succeed too well."

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

I am playing around with something called "Rich Site Summary" (RSS) in order to give the readers the opportunity to syndicate my blog. You could subscribe to my blog with Bloglines. You could find the EGO blog profile @ BlogStreet.

Friday, December 12, 2003

Right now it is a huge split between certain European countries, e.g., France and Germany on one side and Poland and Spain on the other side. The parties are not in agreement on what things should be included in the European constitution. I don't mind the deadlock.

Allen Forkum has a great post on the situation in Taiwan. Bush acts like a wimp and doesn't seem to have the guts to stand up against the dictatorship in communist China. Bush follows the same steps as Nixon on this issue. Do you think that the dictators in Peking will pull off the same stunt regarding Taiwan as they did with Hong Kong in 1997? Read Chen Shui-bian's (President of Taiwan Republic of China) interview by New York Times.

"My goal in this article has been to show the productive role that objectivist philosophy, specifically epistemology, can play in teaching. Everything I have said here is the diametric opposite of today's "in" philosophy, postmodernism, which asserts that there is no reality to know, the language (concepts) have no objective or fixed meaning, that language creates rather than represents reality, and that certainty is impossible. Postmodernism is the dead end of philosophy and therefore of all attempts to gain knowledge. It would necessarily lead to disaster if applied to the field of management." [Edwin A. Locke, Editor, Appendix, "Conclusion," page 450.]

I have written several separate posts on taxes and militant Islamists lately. What would you say if somebody tried to combine militant Islam with tax reform ideas?! Read Frank J Gaffney's article, A Troubling Influence. [Via InstaPundit.] I wonder if Grover Norquist of "Americans for Tax Reform" would be interested in a bank account in Bahrain � la Shari'ah rules...

Sunday, December 7, 2003

Time for my weekly post on Iran. What has Douglas Feith, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, done with Pentagon's Rolodex? Maybe some contact cards are missing? Rumsfeld: You shouldn't be listening to Powell!

"At home, we treated our attackers as if they were isolated criminals rather than soldiers engaged in battle against us. In 1941 we did not attempt to indict the Japanese pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor--we declared war on the source. Yet we spent millions trying to indict specific terrorists--while we ignored their masters."

UPDATE 12/09/03:Thanks for the comments! I agree with Aaron that "Anything is better than the quagmire we have now" and I think that the consumption tax is the best way to go.
Brian Yoder correctly points out: "Unless the income tax is completely and permanently obliterated, we will end up with both a national sales tax and a national income tax and things will be worse than they are now." That is what happened in Sweden. The VAT started out as a temporary sales tax at a level of about 3% and is now 25% (20% off the total price) and a progressive income tax.
Moxie: Here is an excerpt from Edwin Feulner's article, Simplify the Tax Code with a Flat Tax:

"The income-tax system began in 1913 as a two-page form backed by 14 pages of law. Today, we struggle with 742 different forms and 254 separate publications, backed by more than 17,000 pages of law." [Capitalism Magazine, 12/04/02.]

I hope this interview will give you additional insight to the interesting online interviews by Dean Esmay and John Little.

EGO: First of all, I want to thank you very much for your work with the EGO logotype. Do you want to tell my readers how you came up with the logotype?

FORKUM: The initial idea for the logo was a graphic solution using the word "ego" to form a person's face, but the results didn't really connote egoism strongly enough. I knew John could illustrate a heroic, proud man so that is the tack we took. The original drawing had a square border around it. We eliminated that so the man would be the highest graphic element in the logo. The sphere was meant to connote a lofty peak or even the world itself.

COX: Heroic was what I was shooting for. There was power in his stance that I think captured a sense of joy and determination. I really wanted to work simple, simple, simple. You put the logo on a jersey and I've worn that shirt out. [EGO Editor: How about sending a X-mas gift to John & Allen?] I really liked the understated size of the artwork, yet its intent is a real attention-getter. That logo was a fun project.

EGO: Your first war cartoon, "Blend," was created on September 20, 2001. Please tell me your reactions to what happened on 9/11.

FORKUM: Disbelief, horror, fear, anger, grief ... and under all those feelings was a dismay at my own ignorance that such a threat even existed. Of course I knew that militant fundamentalist Muslims hated America and that they regularly attacked us overseas, from Lebanon to Africa to Yemen. I knew they had attack the WTC once before. I knew the Taliban had destroyed non-Islamic statues in Afghanistan. I recalled the name Osama bin Laden. But I never imagined Islamists' willingness and capacity to commit an atrocity on the scale of 9/11. It was a wake-up call for me, to better educate myself on the threat and how to defend ourselves against it. In particular I wanted to fight the battle against Islamist jihad ideology. That desire is fundamental to our editorial cartooning today.

COX: That day changed America. It changed me. How could it not? Now, all I want to do is take the fight to the horrific ideologies that fueled such anti-Americanism. We're editorial cartoonists, so the battlefield is there.

FORKUM: Along those lines, I elaborated about the "Blend" cartoon in our book: Islamic terrorists share an irrationalism with certain activists in America which results in a common bond -- a willingness to use force against those who disagree, a willingness to place their causes above individual rights.

EGO: I think that your cartoon, "Censorship, Berkeley-Style," is showing how the leftists of the academic world are trying to use dirty tricks as a method in order to stop the freedom of speech at universities. For a background, read my post, ANTI-REASON AT UC BERKELEY. Have you been in contact with many students through your blog?

FORKUM: Yes, they've contacted us. University students have asked permission to use our cartoons on flyers advertising demonstrations and lectures. Some student newspapers have published our cartoons. The cartoon "Affirmative Racism" even caused somewhat of a controversy at TexasA&M. So there's definitely some interest there.

And I would add regarding the Berkeley cartoon that it also shows what many college leftists are in essence: intolerant, anti-free-speech thugs.

EGO: What's your favorite source and inspiration for new cartoons?

FORKUM: Mainly current events, though sometimes we "lead" by commenting on issues we think are important. I spend a lot of time checking the latest news online at CNN, FoxNews and Google News as well as surveying information in the blogosphere, which is abundant and useful. I often wish that I had more time just to keep up with the blogosphere. The op-eds at The Ayn Rand Institute are also inspiring.

EGO: What's your view on today's media?

FORKUM: My general view of them is pretty negative. There's seems to be a gross lack of objectivity that leads to biases of every sort, from editorializing in "news" articles to the total evasion of important events. Some of this may be laziness, some may be political sympathizing, and some may be out and out propagandizing. But whatever the reason, it is not good journalism. This is not to say that all journalists and every media outlet are corrupt in some way. I don't know enough to comment on the extent of the problem. But when you have major news organizations like Reuters that even after 9/11 refused to call terrorists "terrorists," it's an indication of deep problems.

FORKUM: Yes, a couple of people have mentioned to me that they've looked further into Objectivism, and I find that immensely rewarding even though it is not the primary purpose of our cartoons.

EGO: What kind of different feedback have you got from your readers?

FORKUM: The overwhelming majority of our feedback is positive, but we also regularly receive criticism, from the full political spectrum -- conservatives, libertarians and leftists.

COX: The biggest kick I get out of our work is opportunity to hear from folks so fast. I've stated it before, but the time between airing the work and hearing what fans think of the work is now down to virtually nothing, and I truly dig the vulnerability... laying it out there and experiencing the response.

EGO: It was very interesting to read the interview in TIA on how you developed an idea for a cartoon. You refer to Ayn Rand's book, The Art of Nonfiction. How have you been able to achieve such clarity in your style?

FORKUM: That's a tough question. It's partly a matter of practice. I used to write editorials for my own publications as well as write letters to editors of other newspapers. Effective op-eds and LTEs boil an issue down to its essence and comment on it concisely, often using analogies and metaphors to drive home a point. Creating cartoon ideas is a similar process. Beyond that the execution of the drawing must clearly communicate the idea, which is where John's skills are so important.

EGO: Could you compare an op-ed with an editorial cartoon? What are the differences and similarities?

FORKUM: I've already mention some similarities above. Of course the main difference is that an editorial cartoon concretizes an opinion with an image. Metaphors and symbolism that are merely handy for an op-ed become essential tools in cartoons. The better editorial cartoons are the ones that emphasize visuals over words and dialogue. That doesn't mean that word-oriented editorial cartoons can't be effective -- we do those type all the time. But the strongest cartoons essentialize an idea to a quickly perceivable concrete.

This strength in editorial cartoons is a weakness compared to op-eds, which can present full arguments, refer to multiple sources and contexts, and deal easily with high-level abstractions. It's basically the difference between a book and its cover. One
advertises an opinion; the other explains it.

FORKUM: Yes, I highly recommend the book -- all of Ayn Rand's books are worth reading. The Romantic Manifesto is an excellent, philosophical analysis of art, from television to novels to painting.

COX: The Romantic Manifesto was a fun read. It kind of gave me a beginning point to justify my "throwback" aesthetic. Instead of being an unimaginative hack, I could be a messenger bringing back the joy of Realism. I found her words to be very invigorating. Now I had something to say to all those stiff-necked modernists who prefer barbaric paint globs over humanist values.

COX: I've been showing my paintings for 10 years, and I hope to do it for the rest of my life. I consider my fine art goals to be the engine for my cartooning. A lot of the adrenaline rush I get from a sharp cartoon is found in the experience of selling a very personal painting. I've come to realize that my two loves are inseparable, and I want to pursue them both with equal passion.

EGO: Allen, could you provide us with a gag cartoon from your magazine, Automotive Report? How about something on the topic "Amish versus Technology"?

FORKUM: This cartoon is from 1996 and, if I remember correctly, it was entirely John's idea.

COX: Yeah... the Amish thing. Loaded with paradoxes that lead to some really funny ideas. Granted, the cartoon was also skirting the meaning of progress, but when I hit upon the idea of a horse crunched in a garage door, it became pure slapstick. The cartoon represents my tendency to make fun of religious dogma... and dumbfounded farm animals.

EGO: What are your plans for the future? When could we purchase your next book? Another Cox & Forkum product?

FORKUM: We're still striving for syndication. We recently sent out submissions and are waiting for reactions. In the mean time, we're producing cartoons as if we're syndicated. Publishing a second book is a strong possibility, perhaps sometime next year. But first we want to sell more copies of "Black & White World." I have too many stored in my garage! We'll likely add more t-shirts to our line. And we're considering selling some of our original artwork.

COX: Ultimately, I'd love to see our work in a big gallery show. Think of a nice airy room with cream walls and hundreds of original drawings all matted and glassed. Bottles of cabernets and pinot grigio piled near a bandstand oozing delicious jazz music across the room. Kind of a celebration of art and ideas. Until then, though, I'm thrilled with the possibilities of where the drawings can lead us. I tell everyone, You ain't seen nothing yet.